Messages

151

Mod Zone / Re: Convert an IBM System X3200 M3 case to be ATX compliant

« on: February 11, 2022, 09:02:42 am »

The IBM System X3200 M3 workstation is 90% compatible with ATX motherboard.

I was fortunate to get one for $20 AUD. The modifications are:

* I/O plate trim down to fit the ATX I/O plate (it is not perfect, there is a small gap)
* USB front panel hub
* LEDs front panel
* PSU replacement

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anJDGK0RPOI

Wow, that's really nice. I like how well USB3 blue complements the Power9 case sticker too. Classic's right, that stock PSU is hilariously awful, especially for anything with such beefy (deafening) cooling. If I could find another non-x86 motherboard I'd love to make it live in the husk of an old white Aptiva. Time will tell on that one.

152

Applications and Porting / Re: CDE 2.4.0c runs quite okay on Fedora 35

« on: February 11, 2022, 09:00:08 am »

I have a nostalgic fondness for CDE going way back - the Xfce theme usually gets me further than CDE itself on modern monitors, but I'm happy to see this regardless. Good work.

153

Operating Systems and Porting / Re: Haiku

« on: February 04, 2022, 07:22:16 am »

Stupid question: if you don't have the mainboard or CPU, what do you have instead?

32GB RAM, new-in-box Radeon Pro W5500, Chenbro SR20503 case, EVGA 650W power supply, two 256GB SSDs, a 4TB hard drive, a Pioneer Blu-ray drive, Intel PCIe wireless card, and relevant cables - but I’ve been waiting on the CPU, heatsink, and motherboard since I bought them in September. Glad to know I’m not alone, but an official update and timeline would be really nice…

And yes, Haiku would scream bloody murder on current Power hardware. I’d be happy to test builds on mine, whenever it gets here.

154

Talos II / Re: Using the μPCIe connector (J10108)

« on: October 21, 2021, 03:48:22 pm »

The manual suggests it is 4 lanes (PCIe 4.0 x4)

The errata states it is an Oculink SFF-8621 physical connector but it is not completely wired for Oculink

Nonetheless, do the PCIe lanes work sufficiently for an SFF-8621 to U.2 NVMe cable?

Here is an example of the cable CBL-SAST-0956 from Supermicro

The cable is not very expensive, I might simply buy one to try it.

I've seen Raptor offer the cable when you buy a Blackbird combo, so it's presumably a supported use case. I'm thinking about doing that after I've tested my incoming Blackbird for stability and gotten a feel for its performance with SATA.

155

GPU Compute / Accelerators / Re: Which GPU would *you* choose?

« on: August 18, 2021, 04:03:04 pm »

At this point - assuming I build a Power9 machine in the next few months - which GPU is more likely to behave itself with a contemporary install of Ubuntu? A Radeon FirePro W7000 (GCN 1.0), or an XFX Radeon R9 390 (GCN 1.1)? And is amdgpu likely to work if I force it with kernel parameters? And while I'm at it, how is Navi support at this point?

These are things I wonder before hearing that Intel's Arc is coming early next year... Here's hoping they manage solid OSS drivers like they have for their IGPs so far, and that they'll work on non-x86 architectures in due time.